OBB Dethrone Nemostars For Maiden Championship

May 2, 2022
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Sunday, May 1
Women: Ndejje Elites 3-1 VVC
Men: Nemostars 1-3 OBB

Orange Block Buster (OBB) were on Sunday crowned champions of the National Volleyball League after beating Nemostars at Old Kampala Arena.

OBB came from a game down to stun Nemostars in best of three finals series to clinch their first league title.

The Iganga based club lost game one last weekend, forced a decider on Saturday which they won 3-1 to register instant success on their debut in top flight.

“It hasn’t been an easy journey but we remained focussed on what we wanted and that is why we are now the new Champions,” commented OBB Coach Lawrence Yakan.

“When they beat us in the first game, we went back to the drawing board, identified our errors and got solutions. We had issues with our reception mainly, we also lost a lot of service but it later became easy for us.”

The win hands OBB a ticket to represent Uganda at the Africa Volleyball championship.

OBB won 13 of the 16 matches played in regular season to finish second with 40 points, just a point below Nemo.

They then dispatched Sport-S in the semis to storm finals where they lost the first game to Nemo.

But after forcing a decider on Saturday, OBB came into Sunday’s ‘winner takes it all’ game with huge momentum.

They got out of the blocks to take the first set 25-22 but Nemostars gave themselves a fighting stance when they levelled to take the second 25-20.

With scores evenly poised, OBB took the second 25-21 under a raucous atmosphere.

And pressure was now on Nemostars to answer back. But it was never to be as OBB quickly continued attacking. Lakan put his fist up when he side led 19-13, as he continued to scent the title.

But there were nervous moments as Nemostars scored a couple of unanswered points. With the score 24-21, and after a back and forth, Nemo’s strike hit the net, Bernard Malinga succumbed on the ground in agony as a couple of OBB fans ran into the court to celebrate the triumph while Nemo coach Andrew Okapis who was animated throughout the game cut a distraught figure at the opposite end. Nemostars’ invisibility that had seen the side win three championships in a row was broken!

And it caps a dead season for Nemostars who also lost the National Championship earlier to Sport-S.

It’s a strong season for OBB Volleyball franchise whose Women team won the Serie B championship and earn promotion to top flight (Serie A) in style.

Ndejje University Elites also came from a game down to beat Vision Volleyball Club (VVC) to claim their fourth serie A women title.

Past Winners of the National Volleyball League:

2022:
Men: OBB
Women: Ndejje

2021
COVID

2020:
COVID

2019
Men: Nemo
Women: Nkumba

2018
Men: Nemo
Women: Nkumba

2017
Men: Nemo
Women: Nkumba

2016
Men: ….
Women: Ndejje

2015
Men: KAVC
Women: VVC